Stopover in Urumqi

The first leg of our journey took us via plane from Beijing to Kashgar, with a few hours spent at Urumqi in between. Urumqi is the capital city of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (hereafter refered to as "Xinjiang") and Kashgar is an ancient market nexus on the very fringe of China. The food visible in the photo above consists of some Xinjiang stand-byes: lamb kabobs and flatbread. The bread is similar to Indian naan bread and in baked in a ceramic oven that closely resembles an Indian tandoor. Unlike Indian naan, Uighur naan is a bit chewier and tougher. The taste is similar to a plain pizza crust. The most common assemblage of lamb kabobs we ingested while in Xinjiang consisted of a series of spicy lamb meat bits in between pieces of lamb fat/gristle (for flavor, we presumed). They were fresh-grilled goodness, with bits of char and red pepper to bring out the best in grilled lamb.



This photo shows a typical kabob grilling trough in Urumqi, though the fan in front of the trough (used by this vendor to waft the mouthwatering grillsmoke across the street to attract customers) was unusual. At the far end of the trough is a charcoal chimney, where the coals are stacked and burned before being raked across the length of the trough. Dozens of metal skewers, laden with lamb and spice and fat, are laid across the maw of the trough and grilled to smokey perfection before being sold for pennies to passers-by. Behind the grillmeister, you can see kabobs in-the-raw, awaiting their time to move to the grill.